Thelma & Louise

00:00:12
Speaker 1: Well, this is take two of our podcast. We wanted to bring something fresh, something new, something innovative, something from the road, Thelma and Louise style. Literally literally we recorded it in the car. It turns out there's a reason people don't do that.

00:00:28
Speaker 2: We recorded a podcast from La to Palm Springs because we were in the BNP paribah mood after our fabulous event we.

00:00:37
Speaker 1: Had at Kelly Wertzler's house in La. Unmitigated triumph is how I would describe them.

00:00:42
Speaker 3: It was a triumph. It was a lot of fun.

00:00:44
Speaker 2: We want to really thank Kelly so much for opening up her house to us and her beautiful home in Beverly Hills. And we were on to thank Wilson who provided all of the equipment for people, equipment, And we want to thank Sogio Tacchini who provided a lot of great clothing and a lot of fun stuff for the for everybody. And Callie water Oliver, thank you so much.

00:01:09
Speaker 1: And La Mescow. You know, we managed to pull off a pretty incredible party in one week after Kelly was like, Hey, I love tennis, have it out of my house. Let's go.

00:01:17
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:01:17
Speaker 1: So thank you to everybody who came out and made our party. If you didn't see it, some of the racket and Renee Instagram caught some of the festivities. We'll be back to it again. And if you want to get invited to one of these things, be very cool and be on.

00:01:34
Speaker 3: Be cool, be cool.

00:01:35
Speaker 1: Let's just be cool. Just be cool. And now here we are in Tennis Paradise, about to throw an event with the Ace Hotel and Swim Club here in Palm Springs, one of our favorite haunts, UH with a live podcast, Q and A no microphones, no recording devices, top secret, off the record, but in.

00:01:56
Speaker 2: Live and secret and off the record, even though we have completely put it out there in the.

00:01:59
Speaker 1: Public exactly with Victoria Azerika here tomorrow night, I'm gonna try to get this podcast out asap so that if you want one of the five or ten tickets that are still left to this thing, you can come join us.

00:02:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, you drinks.

00:02:10
Speaker 2: If you're in Indian Wells or Palm Springs, please come to the Ice Hotel tomorrow night.

00:02:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, even if you can't get in, we'll be uh, we'll be thrown it down.

00:02:16
Speaker 3: I'll be there. I'll be probably in the pool.

00:02:18
Speaker 1: She'll probably be in the pool. What else will happen? Who knows. We try to figure out on our ride down here, who was Thelma and who was Louise, But we decided and it didn't really work well.

00:02:26
Speaker 2: I decided that I just was Gina Davis because I'm tolder than you.

00:02:29
Speaker 1: True, And we also don't have any sexual tension like those ladies did.

00:02:34
Speaker 2: Is that what the And so they just drove themselves off the cliff because they couldn't handle being gay.

00:02:38
Speaker 1: Because you've seen it. The cops were after them because they murdered that guy.

00:02:43
Speaker 3: That's right, that's right.

00:02:44
Speaker 2: So they just started killing It's been a long time since I've seen it. Well, and we also they killed it themselves.

00:02:48
Speaker 1: They did. We also were not in a soft top Mustang.

00:02:52
Speaker 3: That would have been cool.

00:02:53
Speaker 1: That would have been cool. Next time, let's talk about what we are here for, and then we can go backwards because we've had a really good post USO tournament run. We have. But before we get to that BNP P bar, not everyone is here.

00:03:06
Speaker 3: Not everyone is here, but for good reason for a lot of them.

00:03:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, people have good reasons. The field that is here is the Tits.

00:03:11
Speaker 3: Yes, it's the Tits.

00:03:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, listen, look, number one player in the world, Ash Barty, is not here for the wimber's side because well, it's really really really hard to get in and out of Australia and Ash is literally, I believe in quarantine right now, two week quarantine after taking it was really difficult for her to fly actually get a flight back to Australia after the US But I know you probably think, you holdes, Ashbardy, you have a problem getting back, But yeah.

00:03:37
Speaker 3: It was like they're not a litterle a nightmare to get back to Australia.

00:03:41
Speaker 1: Jeans are not flying.

00:03:42
Speaker 2: There is no planes flying to Australia because there's a cap on how many people are allowed into the country on a weekly base list, and so you actually get on a plane and a flight is really difficult because there's tens of thousands of Australians that are little literally stranded outside of Australia. So having said that, I mean, listen, I think Ash also went back to just have a bit of time away after the US Open and then eventually got home like my player Sam Stows are left literally the day after winning the US Open doubles because she had planned and booked that trip, like months months, months in events and said, look, I'm just gonna book it the day after the US Open fingers crossed things go well, then they did, So that's a lesson for everybody out there. And that's funny because some players used to book their trips like the second Tuesday.

00:04:26
Speaker 3: I'm like, well, you don't think you're going to do very well.

00:04:28
Speaker 2: So Sam booked it the monday after and then went home and she just got out of quarantine like about a week ago.

00:04:33
Speaker 3: So it's just it's a bear. It's a real issue for Australians to go back and forth.

00:04:38
Speaker 2: And then you've got some players, Australian players that haven't gone home still, that are on the road and hoping and planning to go back and say December where they're going to open the country up a little bit and have home quarantined.

00:04:49
Speaker 1: Long have they been on the road before the French open.

00:04:52
Speaker 2: Right, Well, someone like Alan Perez for example, she has literally been in the on the road since March.

00:04:57
Speaker 1: I don't think very many people appreciate what it is, a essentially six to.

00:05:02
Speaker 3: Seven to eight months living out a suitcase.

00:05:05
Speaker 1: Sojourn from everything. I mean, sometimes Australian players can go home between Yeah, a lot of times they don't, but they have the option. Obviously this year that's not the case.

00:05:14
Speaker 3: Well, normally we wouldn't go home.

00:05:16
Speaker 2: It's what a lot of us like why I live in this country is because going back and forth was just so difficult and if I wanted had a week off, I would just go home, back to Florida. And now going back to Australia, it's virtually impossible because it takes a couple of days to get back and then you've got to do a two week hotel. No tennis, no exceptions, I mean, no gym. I mean, you can do whatever you can.

00:05:36
Speaker 3: You open your window, you can't open your window, can't.

00:05:40
Speaker 2: There are some different states that have a few different sort of softer rules, so you can go outside for a walk.

00:05:47
Speaker 3: People in Queensland could do that.

00:05:48
Speaker 2: But you know, Darren ky Hill, for example, has probably the toughest quarantine of anyone I've seen in life, because he's done it a bunch of times. But this time he went back and he flew into Sydney and then so you had to do two week quarantine in Sydney, and then he went to Adelaide, which is where he lives, which is another state, so be like flying into New York, but you live in South Carolina. And so for him to go back to Adelaide, he had to do another two week quarantine in South Australia because Sydney is seen as a hotspot, so it's potential that he could. It's like just absolutely, absolutely fucking ridiculous. They made every Olympian that came back from Tokyo do a two week quarantine, and then if you were again from South Australia, you had to do another two week quarantine. So Darren Kale is spending twenty eight days after the US Open in hotel isolation.

00:06:43
Speaker 1: So he'supposed to all that a month.

00:06:44
Speaker 3: Of his life.

00:06:45
Speaker 2: So he's still there. So Darren, I know you listen to the pod. I just want to hang in there. Body shout out to Darren. It's weird because that is on such an extreme. And then on the other extreme you have players.

00:06:58
Speaker 1: Who won't get vaccinated and not the name of any names, but like that might be why they're not here, that might not be why they're not here because it's not required to play in this tournament to be vaccinated.

00:07:10
Speaker 2: I also think Caitlin it's tough to come from Europe. A lot of these players back after the US Open. They playing in Europe right now, and to come back all the way to Indian Wells.

00:07:19
Speaker 3: It's a big tournament.

00:07:20
Speaker 1: Yea's for only one to miss, but it's also a lot of travel. No, No, you're right, super bummed. A girl, Arena Sabalaka is not going to be playing in this tournament because she is now quarantining after testing positive for COVID, which is a bummer because she was going to be the highest seed left in the tournament. Osaka's not playing, Barti's not playing. She's currently the number two ranked player in the world. A couple of things go differently, and she's holding the US Open trophy. So I would really really like to see her get her first slam, her first giant major. You know, she's one wuhan in Connecticut tournament. This would have been the biggest tournament and she could win it absolutely.

00:07:55
Speaker 2: I mean her game is actually perfect here big you know, serving and you know, lighter air here quality like it's the ball goes faster through the air. So she's very difficult to beat in conditions like that. So yeah, it's really bombered that she's had to pull out. And she's obviously such a great personality.

00:08:09
Speaker 1: For so fun and energetic, but so fun. We do have a really fun, fun, fun field. Andrescu, who won this tournament, is here. Obviously, a lot of the top ten is here. Garbinia Mugarotsa is here. Linas Fidelina's here.

00:08:21
Speaker 2: Oh and somebody, you've got a couple of a couple of interesting wild cards. We've got Emma renakanuh course he won the US Open. Of course, three time US Open champion.

00:08:29
Speaker 3: Kimmy can both of you cleisters back here.

00:08:33
Speaker 2: At the Indian Wales event for the first time in how long years?

00:08:37
Speaker 1: But she has won this tournament. What's two I'd say two? Three leasts? Yeah, well, super super excited to have her wildcard. On the men's side. Andy Murray, people are already posting all of our social media their Andy Murray satings because he's there practicing, Which is why it's really fun to go at the beginning of the tournament. End of tournaments are lonely and they're full of rich people who've paid too much money to go see at the start. At the beginning, you see everybody optimism is pervading the air. Everyone's practicing, you can see them on court with their coaches. You see it behind the scenes, and if you don't like the match that you're watching, you can just bounce over and you have ten fifteen other ones to watch it any game time. So for me, going to the beginning of the tournament is always the move. And I actually really like coming right around this time every year when it's still qualifying and you're about to see the first rounds.

00:09:21
Speaker 2: I mean, if you want to just watch tennis players like practice and do their thing, it's great to come a couple days before the tournament actually just go out there and watch them play. And often you get in for free for that, So you better off coming on the first, like at least a day before the tournament starts. You can see every single player will be on the practice courts, and yeah, the first couple of days are always so fun. So and this is one of the great tournaments. We love playing this event. All tennis players love playing this event, so it's nice to see it back.

00:09:47
Speaker 3: Obviously, this was the.

00:09:48
Speaker 2: First major tournament that pulled the plug when the pandemic hits, so it's nice to see it back.

00:09:53
Speaker 1: Here.

00:09:53
Speaker 2: It's obviously not in its normal time slot. It's a bit hotter than it normally would be during the tournament.

00:09:59
Speaker 3: But we in March here as well. We're looking forward to that.

00:10:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm super glad they snuck it in. And one the thing that was nice is because Indian Wells claimed this spot on the calendar relatively early. There was a blossoming i might say, of other American tournaments in the lead up to this, which was awesome and maybe something we could think about keeping.

00:10:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I would love to see a lot more tennis come back to the US. Obviously, we had incredible swings here back in my day playing. We had at the end of the year, we had indoor tournaments here. We had of course after the US Open we had or before the US Open, we had a few more events than what we even have now. And of course this year Chicago Camel Murray put on three events, two prior to the US Open and one just recently in Chicago, and it had a five hundred. So it was a great event, you know, having people like Magellan and just great sponsorship in Chicago and Comals made great connections there to build that tennis outside of Chicago.

00:10:58
Speaker 1: Chicago was a really tennis too, and the fact that they had not one, but three tournaments and big time matches. I mean, you got Garbinia Beaten Arms in a three set barn Burner, you got Spiderlina making a semi and she.

00:11:11
Speaker 3: And Switzerlana won the tournament leading into the US Open.

00:11:13
Speaker 1: There So just grant and osbur is now the highest ranked to hide for the highest ranked Tunisian in history at number fourteen. Hard to imagine she doesn't keep going. I mean, just so awesome to see our pal, who we are going to join for a celebratory stick dinner in just a few minutes, won the doubles first correspondent her first double title in her career, which is amazing. Yeah.

00:11:36
Speaker 2: Andy Pekovic of course wins her first doubles tournament and tells me it wasn't that hard, Like I'm like, how old are you and it took you this song to win a doubles tournament?

00:11:46
Speaker 3: So but no, seriously, no kidding side, way to go.

00:11:50
Speaker 2: And also beat sorry, played with my old doubles partner, forty six year old feder Peshki. Way to go, Cavetta. I mean, what an interesting little couple they made.

00:12:03
Speaker 3: Yeah tennis.

00:12:03
Speaker 1: I mean Andrea was ran a foot and a half taller than at least yeah, I mean, just you know, it was real, like Arnold Schwarzenegger Danny de Vito twins scenario. But honestly, it's a good testament to the fact that doubles is the best and you can play doubles forever, and anybody recreationally who's playing doubles find yourself a tall partner or someone with great hands. Either way, you know, yeah.

00:12:24
Speaker 3: Andy Petko would consider herself to have great hands.

00:12:27
Speaker 1: I was talking about Peshki, but oh yeah.

00:12:28
Speaker 3: She's got great hands.

00:12:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, so yeah, so well done my old doubles partner, Coveta Peski, And way to go peedgo on your first ever WTA doubles.

00:12:36
Speaker 1: Amazing. We should also mention I loved, loved, love the fact that there was a tournament in San Diego, SI is another tennis mad city put on a great men's event. Shout out to Danny Belverdo, friend of the pot, Lauville Verdi's brother who got a great field. Any Murray played Casper Rude ended up winning the thing sub quorda. I mean, just amazing, tennis. Apparently the atmosphere was like tearing the roof off, Caitlin.

00:12:59
Speaker 3: Let me tell you something.

00:13:01
Speaker 2: It was literally my favorite stop on tour every year, other than probably Daniel Island, the event in Charleston that that they put on there, but the atmosphere and event at La Costa, it used to be at La Costa here in San Diego was my favorite tournament to play, and I used to love it, and I'd go surfing, and I'd like, I still have a surfboard at Canciita Martinez's house and she has a place in like, well, let's go we could a couple of hours whip up there, pull up, get my surfboard.

00:13:34
Speaker 1: This is becoming way too much of a.

00:13:35
Speaker 2: Surfao is We need tennis in Southern California, which is a mecca of tennis, and the men's proved it, but the women's event there used to be so well attended, so American tennis, American sponsors. Let's go, pony up, let's get it to women's events in Southern Caligoria's.

00:13:53
Speaker 1: Look as these two events proved, Chicago and San Diego not on the calendar normally. Yeah, people made it happen. The crowds reciprocated. We had great tennis, we had great turnout and people were pumped about it. And now we have a great Indian Wells field. So that really kind of for anyone wants.

00:14:09
Speaker 2: To give us a million dollars, we're happy to put on a record. Yeah, record record open wherever you want in San Diego and wherever, wherever.

00:14:17
Speaker 1: Austin, I don't know. Just take a cool place New Orleans. I don't know, some place I want to go where there's food that's good. That's my Caeso and Austin or like you know, uh, shrimp po boys in Louisiana. I'm thinking about the snacks that have Obviously, Okay, so we've covered the sort of American run up Indian Wells. Obviously, Guadalajara is going to be the women's final, which I'm pumped about. I might be the only person pumped about it, but the fact that there's gonna be another Mexico tournament makes me super happy.

00:14:46
Speaker 2: Well, we're not gonna have the AUSSI say, no, ash body is not coming back. No, And as I said, there's reasons for that, like you can't get a flight.

00:14:53
Speaker 1: Yeah. Is so soccer gonna play that.

00:14:55
Speaker 3: I highly doubt it.

00:14:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, like sam Stoiza is you know, more than likely going to qualify for the doubles if she wanted to. But it's going to be it's literally impossible to get to there from Australia and you can get out.

00:15:08
Speaker 3: Takes you forever, but getting back is a problem. There's no flights.

00:15:11
Speaker 1: So what about Chikov are going to win by default because nobody else wants to play this thing. I'll go play, you know, get a minimum.

00:15:20
Speaker 2: There be a lot of players like Garbinia Kishkova, There'll be a lot of that will maybe even stay after this event in the US somewhere. I would imagine, Yeah, sure, I mean that would be probably the prudent thing to do. I mean I would do that if you've got a place, great place to stay. Well, Garbinia might have the one up there, because as I said, she spent time in San Diego practicing with Kanchi, who has a house there, and then just whipped you know, over to Chicago.

00:15:47
Speaker 3: She'll come here and she'll.

00:15:49
Speaker 1: I'm into it. It's a good We.

00:15:50
Speaker 2: Digress, but it will be interesting to see that event down there.

00:15:54
Speaker 3: You're very excited about it.

00:15:55
Speaker 1: I don't know why I'm so excited. I love I love, I like Yeah.

00:15:58
Speaker 3: I like Mexico.

00:15:59
Speaker 1: I love Yeah. My parents used to live there. They were in the symphony there, so I feel like I have a real affinity. I'm just having more tennis to talk about it this time of the year. Usually the time zones make it so difficult. I used to live in Beijing, and I like that part of the world quite a bit.

00:16:16
Speaker 2: You were going to say something in Chinese sea, No I wasn't.

00:16:19
Speaker 1: I may I could, but I won't.

00:16:21
Speaker 3: I want everybody she can speak Chinese.

00:16:23
Speaker 1: Not great, it's not great. So one thing that also happened today that bears mentioning because it.

00:16:30
Speaker 2: Is managed not to kill us on the road driving here, and we had in an out burger.

00:16:34
Speaker 1: That's true. We did have innatburners and we're alive. But today the ATP announced that they will be looking into forming an investigation to probe the allegations of domestic violence against Alexander Zverev, which I think really really really represents a great step forward. I mean, for his part, he says he welcomes the investigation, so, okay, great, everybody's happy. He gets to maybe be cleared or found to be involved. Either way, we will have a tour level investigation. It will be on the books, it will be official, it will be thorough. It gives me no pleasure that this has been such a part of the dialogue and this law, this rule, this commission has been overdue and now the ATP has finally addressed, and I'm really happy about that. It's a testament to what reporting does people get on Ben's case because he can be very you know, prickly on social media. He's an investigative reporter. He's what us, you know, in newsrooms, people who spend time actually doing a lot of reporting.

00:17:41
Speaker 3: You know, you're like a dog with the button.

00:17:44
Speaker 1: He's like a dog with a bone. And the thing about Ben is that he in any other sport, in any other field. And this is coming from me who used to be a political reporter. There are so many people who are capable of doing investigative reporting in other areas. Tennis has not had anybody. So he sticks out because Tennis has not been interested in asking the hard questions, in following up on the hard topics.

00:18:09
Speaker 2: And we need people like Ben because asking those questions, because it's difficult for TV people or you know, to be asking these questions or were probing, and we don't have time to do that. And I don't know if there's a reason why we need people like that, and it, you know, kind of reminds me of like someone like Ronan Farrow who just stayed on it and stayed on and then you know, I don't know if you ever saw or read that podcast or read that book, but you know, he had relied on investigative journalists of twenty years that had done work on Harvey Weinstein, for example, and he used a lot of their stuff from previous years, and then he got new information. So you know, I think the bottom line is with this and we get asked about it at nauseum, but it's like I think the question we always asked was and it's the same with Bush's. Really I get asked all the question, Well you never give Bushes Philly. Well, he's in court, so they've done a bit of an investigation, at least the police have because of she went to the police, his wife, And of course the difference here is that oh yeah, didn't prosecute or go to the police with this information. But there are as you said in our last part there was a lot of reasons for that. I mean, monetarily, it's difficult. Lawyers aren't cheap.

00:19:17
Speaker 3: You know, it's three or four different countries that this stuff happened.

00:19:21
Speaker 2: This is a lot of logistical issues for her, And like you said, we just want it cleared either way so we can move on and let it go and let him play and not have this hanging over his head. Or if he's found guilty then he needs to be accountable for it. And if he's not, then let's get playing and let's stop talking about this.

00:19:40
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think this is a real testament to everybody who kept the pressure on investigative journalists who are different than commentators, who are different than podcast hosts, who are different than TV, and all of those things have a place in the ecosystem. But Ben sticks out because he's one of the rare investigative reporters in this sport. The sport could use many more of them. And the truth is, you know, and I get asked about this lot because Rackett published the original piece and I stand by it, and we fact checked it and we lawyered it up and all this stuff, and you know, a lot of people who are very vocal on Twitter especially are like, oh, well, Ben has a vendetta against verav Ben wrote a glowing, loving profile of this Zverev family traveling around in a bus with their Douglovac years ago for us. You can read it. It's still on the internet. This is not a personal vendetta. Investigative journalists find a thread and they keep pulling. That's what they do. And if tennis were better, and part of what we are trying to do is make it better, then it would have lots of them because this stuff wouldn't take a year plus to get investigated. So that's all basically I want to say about it. But kudos to Ben, Kudos to that reporting, Kudos to the ATP, Kudos to people like Mary Carillo for having a backbone and not deciding to participate in an optional event in which Alexander Zverev under this cloud was invited. And that is the Laver Cup that I'm talking about, you know, And I think if you want to know more about that or hear more about that, you know, and her spine and her integrity, you can listen to a fantastic episode of a Behind the Racket podcast That's with Noah Rubin, where Mary basically just said I had a draw a line in the sand, and this was it look myself in the mirror.

00:21:13
Speaker 2: And it's good because the co host of Noah's name is escaping me. But he said, you know, I work in television as well, and one of the things that he said.

00:21:24
Speaker 3: Was it's hard for me Mary to like do what you're doing.

00:21:27
Speaker 2: I just have this, as you said, stand up for my integrity when it's I don't have the luxury of your credentials and your livelihood.

00:21:35
Speaker 3: You know, Mary has a presence.

00:21:38
Speaker 2: But Mary also said I've lost a lot of jobs over this as well, like speaking my mind. So so yeah, she's our mused but as she said, look, I'm too old to sit back and not say how I feel. So we rely on people like Mary. She's a little bit of our north star. But also, at the same time, as you said, we're done talking about it. The ATP have finally stepped up to you something about it, and then we'll see what happens from there.

00:22:02
Speaker 1: And yeah, whatever happens, it is now being taken into the hands of the authorities, which is how it should have been. The whole time, yes, and you know, and now we can sort of focus on the stuff that we like the best, which is the tennis.

00:22:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, which is the tennis. So we're super excited to be back Indian Wells. We're having this event at the Ice Hotel tomorrow and we love the Ice.

00:22:20
Speaker 3: They're such great. Yeah, they do a great job for.

00:22:24
Speaker 2: Us and with us, and yeah, we're just super excited to be back in the desert.

00:22:28
Speaker 1: If you can are hearing this, turn up tomorrow night. All right, let's go get some thicks.

00:22:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm hungry.

00:22:33
Speaker 1: I'm starving. All right until soon. Thank you for listening. Thanks guys, We appreciate you.

00:22:37
Speaker 3: We do appreciate you back.

00:22:40
Speaker 1: And that's it for this episode of the Racket Magazine podcast. Thanks for listening. Our host is Renee Stoves. Our co host and producer is me Katelin Thompson. Music by internationally renowned DJ Stretch Armstrong. Thanks to Tim or Jerry and then the team at acast. Find us at racketmag dot com, slash podcast and subscribe to us at any of your favorite podcatchers.

00:23:03
Speaker 3: H